


how to say 'i love you' like Dirtyhands does

by midnightandmuffins



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Denial, F/M, Fluff, Learning to Fight, i shld go figure out how to tag better, inej being badass, kanej kanej kanej, kaz being protective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:14:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26297005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnightandmuffins/pseuds/midnightandmuffins
Summary: Kaz Brekker isn't one for flowers or chocolates. He prefers to keep himself hidden behind the four walls of his office and the stone enclosure of his mind. Yet she manages to soften him so much that, even if he doesn't utter the three magic words, he finds ways to show his love anyway.Follow Kaz Brekker and Inej Ghafa through Inej's early days in the Dregs and see the various ways in which he says (acts, pretends, shows) I love you.
Relationships: Kaz Brekker & Inej Ghafa, Kaz Brekker/Inej Ghafa
Comments: 16
Kudos: 107





	how to say 'i love you' like Dirtyhands does

**Author's Note:**

> She saw Kaz stare at her for a moment, immobile. It was probably the glint from the knife (it was the dazzle of her smile) and she soon saw him start to speak again.

i.

Throwing a punch came naturally to Inej. It made her feel alive to be able to defend herself after her days at _that place_. To be able to say that she had the ability to hurt anyone who dared to mess with her. Not necessarily the act of punching, but the knowledge that she could if she wanted to was what made her feel powerful.

Apparently she was doing it wrong, though.

“Your feet have to be planted a little distance apart.” A rasp of a voice. She knew immediately that it was Kaz as a foot nudged her legs apart from behind. The smallest action but she had been here long enough to know that he probably didn’t act this way with others (but to him, she wasn’t like the others).

In the empty training room, her voice carried. “Don’t sneak up on me, Kaz. I could kill you if I wanted to.” 

She could practically feel him roll his eyes. She wondered when she had acquired such an awareness of his actions. It had barely been three weeks since he had… since he had, well, ‘bought’ her, effectively (he didn’t think of it as a sale. To him, it was a penance for his sins and a spider for his collection).

“Not if you punch like that, you won’t.”

He came into view. Immaculate suit, hair slicked back, cane in gloved hands. As always. He leaned his cane against the wall.

“You want to keep your wrist straight to deliver the most amount of force.” 

He held out his fist as reference. Inej accepted the information and righted herself. She was no use to him if she couldn’t punch, after all. She needed to be worth the money he had spent (she didn’t know that she was already worth it and more).

Kaz gave her a look she couldn’t decipher. A scrutinising look that she felt could pierce her soul.

“You need to know all this to defend yourself. Can’t have my Wraith breaking limbs on the job.”

“Here I was thinking that I was just an ‘investment.’”

“And you would do well to know that I protect my investments,” Kaz replied. With a last searching look, he left.

Inej realised only later how rarely Dirtyhands ever spent time teaching newbies how to fight.

ii.

Inej returned to her room after her much-awaited shower to find a parcel lying on her bed. Strange. No one ever left her things, especially not long, thin and incongruously weapon-like things wrapped in plain brown paper. Well, parcels existed to be opened so she got right to it.

She gasped when she saw its contents. A slender knife with a beautifully engraved hilt, it sparkled in the sunlight, deadly and beautiful at the same time (what a coincidence how it resembled her: grace of an acrobat, swiftness of a killer). Of course, not a gift she would’ve been particularly pleased to receive in what she liked to call her previous life, but her days in the Barrel made her appreciate it so much more.

“Kaz.”

She made up her mind and went to meet him. Most men would have been terrified or gone under severe shock upon seeing a graceful woman appear on their windowsill holding a glinting knife, but Kaz only gave Inej a look that said, “Ah my Wraith… Would it have killed you to use the door?”

She had already figured out that normal methods of entering a room were not for her. The whistling wind carrying the scent of garbage and the freedom of looking down a building from a windowsill, no matter how dirty the city was, made her feel alive.

“I found this in my room.” He looked up at her with an expression of disinterest and continued shuffling papers at his desk (although he was, in fact, very interested).

“I would have been concerned if the knife had been able to learn how to walk in the half an hour that’s passed since I left it there.” 

Inej gave him a broad smile. “It’s beautiful Kaz, thank you! It must have been very expensive.”

She saw Kaz stare at her for a moment, immobile. It was probably the glint from the knife (it was the dazzle of her smile) and she soon saw him start to speak again. “I said I valued you, Wraith. It’s time to put your skills to use.”

iii.

Kaz had made it very clear that Inej was to be respected among the Dregs. However, there had been no need to establish the fact since she had done it on her own. Ever since she had made a name for herself, no one ever looked at the Wraith with anything other than deferential regard.

And then the stupid new guy came along.

A new recruit, crow and cup still fresh and red on his forearm, he had thought that it would be fun to say he owned the elusive Wraith. The numerous drinks had played a part, sure. And his friends egging him on that night at the Crow Club had boosted his spirits too. He had made sure that Kaz Brekker wasn’t around and gone straight up to her. Of course, the only thing to fear in having Inej Ghafa was Dirtyhands wasn’t it? That little Suli girl couldn’t possibly hurt him!

She would welcome him with open arms, of course.

It was his nose she broke when he put his hands around her waist. And then the only thing his hands could do was to try and stop the blood from gushing down his face.

It didn’t work.

And when the Bastard of the Barrel came after him later that night, eyes as black as the devil’s, expression as livid as the pits of Hell, his hands couldn’t do anything at all because his fingers had been broken beyond repair.

“If you ever touch her or come to this part of the Barrel ever again, it won’t be your fingers that I break. It’ll be your neck,” he had hissed as he had left him whimpering in the dark corridor, clutching his broken fingers with his other broken fingers. He sure as hell would never go after Inej Ghafa ever again.

Because Dirtyhands simply protected his investments.

But Inej Ghafa kicked the asses of anyone who touched her and Kaz Brekker killed them and disposed of the evidence afterwards.

**Author's Note:**

> hello again! hope you enjoyed this, i've been attempting to get them in character but i'm not sure if i've got it yet haha... constructive criticism is welcome and thanks for reading!


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